The first Chip’s Challenge took the creator, Chuck Sommerville, ten weeks to make, but the sequel took two years. Upon completing the sequel, he discovered that the trademark had been sold and the new owners wanted him to fund the publishing. Since he couldn’t afford it, Chip’s Challenge 2 wasn’t released until twenty-five years later.

After Chip McCallahan had won the heart of Melinda the Mental Marvel they went to the Bit Busters annual e-prom and celebrated. Together they won several brainy victories and made the Bit Busters a force to be reckoned with. The International Brain Game Club, The Puzzle Masters, have officially challenged the Bit Busters and they have accepted the challenge of completing two-hundred puzzles to maintain their elite status.

The first few levels are tutorials that have instructions given by Vladimir Gerajkee, the test administrator. Those who have not played the original Chip’s Challenge will learn about collecting chips, keys, and the various footwear that allows Chip (or Melinda!) the ability to traverse terrains including water, ice, fire, and escalators. Most of the levels are timed and it’s up to these two brainiacs to collect the necessary chips to unlock the exit warp.

Nearly eighty new elements have been introduced including turnstiles that will only move in one direction and sinking turtles that can only be stepped on once. Some other new additions include a key mapper to customize the controls and a level editor to create your own mind-numbing challenges to torture your friends with.

Many of the same enemies remain including ants that look like spiders and centipedes that resemble ants, chattering teeth, and gliders that look like rocket ships. Each enemy has its own movement patterns and most of them have limited terrain that they can move on. Thieves that steal bonus points or all of your inventory items are best avoided, but sometimes it’s not possible.

While the enemies are not to be taken lightly, the biggest challenges are the numerous obstacles that will eat up your precious time bypassing them. There are switches that will open and close pathways and transform bombs into collectible chips. In many cases you have to repeat the switching back and forth to collect all of the required chips. Often times there are limited paths and resources and one wrong move will compromise the whole level. When that happens you’ll have no choice but to restart from the beginning.

Though I can appreciate a good challenge, I wouldn’t mind check points or the option to do a quick save. Without those in place, it is more frustrating, but rewarding when you do complete a level. As an added bonus, there are Steam achievements for completing levels on the first try.

With two hundred levels and the ability to create more, Chips Challenge 2 is worth the $4.99 price tag by itself or bundled with the first game and level editor for the same price. Other than some cartoony deaths, this game is safe for all audiences or anyone who likes a good challenge. My kids enjoyed Chip’s “bummer” when he died. The background music and graphics are similar to the original game. Anyone who is a fan of the original, should definitely consider this long awaited sequel!

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